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BOOK REVIEW // ENDGAME

Endgame

by James Frey & Nils Johnson-Shelton

'Twelve ancient cultures were chosen millennia ago to represent humanity in Endgame, a global game that will decide the fate of humankind. Endgame has always been a possibility, but never a reality…until now. Twelve meteorites have just struck Earth, each meteorite containing a message for a Player who has been trained for this moment. At stake for the Players: saving their bloodline, as well as the fate of the world. And only one can win.

Endgame is real. Endgame is now.'

After reading the blurb I knew I wanted to read 'Endgame' and was kindly sent a copy before release. The whole dystopian genre has come under a huge spotlight since 'The Hunger Games' and this sounded very similar to others I've read such as 'The Maze Runner' (review here).

I wasn't sold on the story at first - it seemed like another book in which kids kill each other to survive blah blah. It did get me hooked when I was half way through the book however. Unlike 'The Hunger Games', there's more focus on all of the 12 players rather than a sole protagonist. I wanted to know what happened to my favourite characters by the end because you find out an equal amount of each (dependant on how long they're alive for, obviously).

The characters and detail into their lives before and during playing Endgame was the best point for me, it means you really get to grips with them as people and I find it's more enjoyable when you care about what happens to each one.

One of the most irritating things about the book is An Liu, a player with a stammer. Each of his chapters have an extraordinary amount of *blinkblinkblink-ing* in them which after introducing him as a character with this issue and a first *blink* they should have just given the audience the credit to remember that he would be disadvantaged because of this.

It was pretty action packed but not my cup of tea, I didn't find it exciting enough.

However, the interesting thing about this book is how it is also an interactive REAL LIFE game involving puzzles, YouTube videos, e-books and more. Basically, there's a $500,000 prize if a reader can figure out the clues, reflecting a similar plot to that of the actual story (without murder and death I hope) and unlock the gold in Las Vegas. It's all pretty exciting BUT this isn't portrayed enough at all. I received the book, read the book, saw the puzzles and yet still had to Google for about half an hour to find out if this was actually a real thing. Apparently it is, see the live stream here.